cover image: A Dictionary of Literary Devices : Gradus, A-Z

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A Dictionary of Literary Devices : Gradus, A-Z

1991

'Common-sense,' the Romantic critics told us, was all that was needed to understand and interpret literary texts. Today, we know this is not generally true. Modern criticism has joined with pre-Romantic criticism to expose common-sense as appropriate (because simple-minded), inadequate to comprehend and interpret verbal structures which are frequently 'non-[commonsensical,' anti-commonsensical, or even nonsensical.

The difference between readers today and their earlier counterparts is that we have lost the full vocabulary of criticism and the consciousness of the literary and rhetorical devices with which texts are created. Yet these devices are still available to us, still practised even if unwittingly and on an impoverished scale.

"Gradus," originally published in French in 1984, was designed to make good that loss, to reanimate those skills. Comprising some 4000 terms, defined and illustrated, it calls upon the resources of linguistics, poetics, semiotics, socio-criticism, rhetoric, pragmatics, combining them in ways which enable readers quickly to comprehend the codes and conventions which together make up 'literarity.' Skilfully translated into English, and adapted for an English-language audience with illustrations taken from an astonishing range of contemporary texts, literary and popular, drawn from literature, radio, television, and the theatre, "Gradus" will be a constant source of information and delight.

dictionaries rhetoric poetics

Authors

Bernard Dupriez, Albert W. Halsall

Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 479-499) and index
Control Number Identifier
CaOOCEL
Dewey Decimal Classification Number
803
General Note
Translation of: Gradus : les procédés littéraires Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
ISBN
9781442670303 0802027563
LCCN
PN172
LCCN Item number
D813 1991eb
Modifying agency
CaBNVSL
Original cataloging agency
CaOTU
Physical Description | Extent
1 electronic text (xx, 545 p.)
Published in
Canada
Publisher or Distributor Number
CaOOCEL
Rights
Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
System Control Number
(CaBNVSL)thg00600217 (OCoLC)431542298 (CaOOCEL)417471
System Details Note
Mode of access: World Wide Web
Title proper/short title
Gradus, A-Z
Transcribing agency
CaOTU

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